April Barrage of Butterflies in S.F. Bay Area

Flit around in style with this gorgeous butterfly credit card wallet that is great for holding business cards, too.

It seems that the first butterflies flitting around the garden indicate that winter is over and spring has sprung. This year spring was announced in a BIG way with a brilliant show of thousands of orange Painted Lady butterflies. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, hundreds of butterflies a minute passed over cars, buildings, trees and people, on their northern migration from the Southern California desserts to Northern California.

The Painted Ladies do not stop flying until they run out of body fat. Then these butterflies will lay eggs, and their offspring will continue the northern migration next year into Oregon, Washington and even British Columbia. When I asked my niece if she saw the butterflies she said the children at school spent the entire recess running around the playground chasing them.

As soon as I got close to the flowers, the butterflies would fly away.

The butterflies’ multi-year migration is similar to that of their cousins, the Monarch Butterfly, who begin their migration in Mexico and over three generations eventually migrate to Canada. Then the fourth generation returns to Mexico in one continuous flight.

It is amazing to me that these small, beautiful creatures can posses the navigational skills, strength and tenacity to continue a journey of thousands of miles.

Bring the butterflies inside with a Butterfly Switch Plate to light up your room!

(Wo)Man vs. Wild Butterflies: These butterflies know how to avoid predators! Every time I even got close to the flower bush in hopes of capturing 8 or 10 in a photo, most would take off and flutter away. I still managed to snap four in this photo, and I considered myself lucky. All the rest were in the air above the flowers. They weren’t ready to leave these tasty African Daisies, but they weren’t taking any chances either. I was just happy to be gardening with them nearby.

It has been fun having the butterflies paint the town!

If you love butterflies and are looking for cool butterfly accessories, check out Kyle Design’s Butterfly Gifts. We have all kinds of unusual butterfly items that you won’t find anywhere else: Light switch plates, business card holders, tape measures, flasks, eyeglass cases and much, much more!

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2008 Holiday Wrap-Up – What Was Hot at Kyle Design

The holidays are always the busiest time of year for us at Kyle Design because of our unique selection of engraved gifts and functional art. It is always interesting for me to what the standout designs were for each year, so here’s what was hot for us for holiday 2008:

Butterfly Compact - A mirror that reflects beauty

Butterflies: Butterfly images are perennial good-sellers, but in particular this year. We sold a lot as wedding ornaments engraved with the date of The Big Day. Also popular were Butterfly memorial ornaments with butterflies being a symbol of transition from this life to the next.

Shark Attack Key Ring can be engraved on the back with a humorous message.

Sharks: Popular as Christmas ornaments and as desk accessories. Were these being given to an attorney as a humorous lawyer gift ? San Jose Sharks hockey fans? Surfers? People who loved the movie Jaws? Someone who makes really good shark fin soup? We never really know until someone tips us off.

Vampires: This one I could figure out. What with the Twilight movie that came out in November and the popularity of vampire books like those by Ann Rice, Stephenie Meyers, Bram Stoker, Laurell K. Hamilton and Stephen King, vampires were, not surprisingly, big, big, big.

Pharmacists now have a stylish way to wear their ID badges with this attractive beaded lanyard

Swimming: Big winner for us. Actually introduced it last year but swimmers really found us in the search engines this year! It’s a popular sport, but what’s out there most places is fairy predictable – T-shirts, caps, key chains, coffee mugs. I think customers were really happy to find something more artistic, something unique – earrings, money clips, ornaments, eyeglass cases.

Pharmacy: Our other medical gifts have always done well and a pharmacist design was an often requested image, so the introduction of this pattern received the reception we were expecting. Especially popular on beaded lanyards, business card cases and ornaments.

Wisdom credit card holder may help you make good purchasing decisions

Wisdom: This Chinese symbol made a big debut – who couldn’t do with a little more wisdom in their life? I like the Jimi Hendrix quote, “Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.” My staff member Susan wisely predicted that the Asian character would be hot, so we prepared extra. Good call!

Retractable Badge Holder with Cupcake Design - Fun way to show some personality at work

Cupcake: Yum! One of my daughters is thinking about having a cupcake birthday party, so I figured I better do a design for it so she can give out party favors with cupcakes. I also got her the giant cupcake pan that is the size of a cake for Christmas. She is very happy.

Squirrels: Cute, industrious and great entertainment for dogs (and humans). On our daily dog walks, we are always chasing squirrels, so for Christmas I gave our dog Milano a Squirrel Christmas ornament engraved with “The one that got away”.  😉

So, there you go. 2008 in a nutshell.

Squirrel Christmas Tree Ornament makes a great holiday gift for squirrel-chasing dog!

Click any of the photos above for more special gift suggestions or visit Kyle Design for cool Shark Gifts, Lawyer Gifts, Squirrel Gifts, Butterfly Gifts, Pharmacist Gifts, Vampire Gifts, Swimming Gifts, Wisdom Gifts and Cupcake Gifts.